Evolution of European Identity: From Antiquity to Integration

Posted on Jun 8, 2026 in Philology

European Culture as a Concept

What is culture? It can be defined as shared meanings, a process or practice, and through a critical approach. European culture as an idea involves various perspectives and assumptions:

  • Key thinkers: Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Bernard-Henri Lévy, and Jordan Peterson.
  • Assumptions about European culture and its representation on Wikipedia.
  • Problems with shared heritage narratives and the concept of Fortress Europe.
  • Postcolonial perspectives and Michael Rothberg’s concept of the implicated subject.
  • Case studies: Trayvon Martin, “We are all Trayvon Martin,” and “We are all George Zimmerman.”
  • Collective European identity and responsibility regarding colonial histories.

Roots in Antiquity and Founding Myths

Is European culture rooted in antiquity? This section examines the founding myths and the Greco-Roman world:

  • Europe as a myth and a region.
  • The discipline of Classics and the Classical tradition.
  • Four discourses of classicism.
  • Political applications: Boris Johnson and Cincinnatus.
  • The Europa myth and Virgil’s myth.
  • The “We are all Greeks” sentiment and the Greek/barbarian distinction.
  • Roman civilization and Greco-Roman diversity as discussed by Mary Beard.
  • The selective use of antiquity in politics, diplomacy, and social authority.

Christianity and European Identity

The role of Christianity in defining Europe remains a central debate in modern politics:

  • Christianity in the EU Constitution and the stance of Angela Merkel.
  • Perspectives from T. S. Eliot and the Psalter Map.
  • The medieval worldview and the concept of Christendom.
  • The division of the Roman Empire: Roman Catholicism vs. Eastern Orthodoxy.
  • Islam and Europe: The Mesquita in Cordoba and the Europeanization of Christianity.
  • Talal Asad on Muslims and European identity.
  • The politics of civilizational identity and the PVV campaign.
  • Turkey’s relationship with European identity.
  • The Crusades in the cultural imagination: Holy War, the Kingdom of Heaven, and Saladin as “post-Christian.”
  • The Schlimm critique and Christianity as a tool for exclusion.

The Construction of the West and the East

Europe is often equated with “The West,” but this identity is a historical construction:

  • Larry Wolff and the Inventing of Eastern Europe.
  • Balkanism, the Iron Curtain, and the Gothic imagination in Dracula.
  • The Renaissance and Enlightenment divisions of Europe.
  • Philosophic geography: Civilization vs. Barbarism.
  • Orientalism and the discovery of America.
  • The fall of Constantinople and the Ottoman Empire’s role in Europe.
  • The Balkans as an intermediary space and the East vs. West stereotypes.

Whiteness, Colonialism, and the Gaze

This section addresses the racialized aspects of European identity and its colonial roots:

  • Colonial expansion and the process of Europe becoming “the West.”
  • Colonial spectacles and Marieke Bloembergen’s research on exhibiting humans.
  • The Couple in a Cage and the history of human zoos.
  • Musealisation and world exhibitions (e.g., Netherlands East Indies).
  • Benedict Anderson on museums, maps, and censuses.
  • Cartography: Abraham Ortelius and the Mercator Projection.
  • Race, evolutionism, and the colonial gaze.
  • Whiteness as a marker of civilization and the resistance to viewer implication.

European Integration and Memory Politics

Modern European integration faces challenges regarding shared heritage and memory:

  • The Maastricht Treaty and the motto “Diversity in Unity.”
  • The search for a common cultural heritage and EU campaign strategies.
  • Heritage as a site of conflict and the role of memory in identity.
  • Controversies over public space: Berlin street names and statues of Jan Pieterszoon Coen or Columbus.
  • Transforming memory and the work of Ann Rigney.
  • The House of European History and the politics of European memory.